Two years after the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) declared the popular Trademore Estate in Lugbe, Abuja a disaster area, following a flood, the place has again been submerged.
This came after an early morning downpour in most parts of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). In a viral video, an unidentified woman claimed that two lives were lost to the disaster, while property worth millions of naira was submerged.
Speaking in the video, the unidentified woman said: “This is Trademore Estate, Federal Government, we are pleading. Two people have just died. The water swept them away. Please, we are begging the FCT Minister to come and do something; we are appealing.
“See, the police station is gone. These are people’s residences, and water is everywhere. Minister of FCT, Honourable Wike, please, come to Trademore Estate. People are dying. Two people died this morning. What a pity!”
But a resident of the estate, Josiah Onyeme, told The Guardian that not all houses in the estate were submerged. According to him, while Phase One is on a hilly area and untouched by flood, the same could not be said of Phase Two, which is located on low land, and flood-prone.
He said: “I have not gone out this morning but I have seen videos on our WhatsApp group. It is pretty bad that Phase Two gate where we used to have a police station and some houses was submerged. But there is nothing to confirm that somebody actually died today. Although I live in Phase One, my part of the estate was never affected. This side is a bit of a mountain, compared to the other side which is quite low.”
Also, the Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Department (FEMD) debunked claims that any life was lost. Acting Director-General, Florence Wenegieme, said this while assessing the extent of the flash flood that submerged some of the houses up to window level.
She said: “There was no distress call from the residents of Trademore Estate. It was a passer-by that saw the flood and called us, and there was no report of anybody missing.”
Wenegieme explained that emergency officials were not expected at the estate because it was declared a disaster zone in 2022 due to recurring flood in the area.
She recalled that the 2023 incident submerged almost all the houses in the estate. According to her, about 116 houses were marked for demolition because they were built on waterways, but FCTA was restrained from carrying out the exercise following a court injunction obtained by the residents.
“The houses that were submerged by the flash flood were part of the 116 houses marked for demolition for sitting on a flood plain,” she added.
